Fukushima Nuclear Crisis Update for March 6th – March 8th, 2012

Here’s the latest of our news bulletins from the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

This Sunday marks one year since the devastating earthquakeand tsunamioccurred in Japan, as well as when the ongoing nuclear disaster began. Greenpeace offers condolences and support to the victims, along with hopes for a successful reconstruction creating a nuclear-free future.

Members of Japan’s parliament are expressing concerns about whether or not Japan’s proposed regulatory entity, the Nuclear Safety and Security Agency (NSSA), can maintain independence from the nuclear industry. A bill to establish the new agency has become stalled, raising questions about whether or not the NSSA will be established in April, as originally scheduled.

Nuclear experts from the US Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have published a new report charging that the Japanese government and TEPCO could have prevented the Fukushima disaster if they had followed international safety measures for nuclear power plants.

TEPCO

Shareholders of TEPCO stock have filed a $67.4 billion (5.5 trillion yen) lawsuit against 27 current and former TEPCO executives, charging that they wilfully ignored data predicting a tsunami and failed to prepare the Fukushima Daiichi plant for disasters. The shareholders say that damages should be paid to TEPCO and subsequently used to compensate victims of the disaster. In the past, Japanese courts have ruled that executives can be held liable for damages, and the group hopes their action will give pause to directors at other nuclear power companies who could be held similarly responsible. Hiroyuki Kawai, an attorney for the complainants, said, “This could be very effective in halting reactor restarts. Directors of other utilities may have a sense of crisis that they could lose their own homes if they carelessly restart reactors and see another accident.”

Catastrophic meltdown at the spent fuel pool at reactor #4 was avoided last year only by chance and a botched job by TEPCO workers. When power was lost at the plant, water in the pool began to evaporate from the fuel’s extreme heat. By chance, a reactor well located above the spent fuel pool was filled with water as part of maintenance work that was scheduled to be completed by March 7, but was delayed because of workers had brought the wrong size tool. In addition, a separator gate between the reactor well and spent fuel pool was left open by chance. When the earthquake and tsunami struck, approximately 1,000 tons of water flowed from the reactor well into the spent fuel pool, preventing meltdown.

A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists says that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is moving too slowly to enact safety regulations for nuclear plants in the US, which are “vulnerable to…severe natural disasters. Similarly serious conditions could be created by a terrorist attack.” Twenty-three reactors in the US share the same design as the reactors at the Fukushima plant, which experienced total meltdowns. The group said that monitoring equipment at American plants cannot withstand disasters, and operators have no contingency plans for dealing with more than one reactor melting down simultaneously. Meanwhile, Gregory Jaczko, Chair of the NRC, has admitted that a plan to upgrade safety at the 104 nuclear reactors in the US is already behind schedule, and the Commission may not meet its five-year deadline. Jaczko said, “There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done.”

A new poll conducted by the non-profit, non-partisan Civil Society Institute shows that Americans are 57% less supportive of nuclear power than they were a year ago, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Seventy-seven percent support “using clean renewable energy resources—such as wind and solar—and increased energy efficiency as an alternative to more nuclear power in the United States.”

Enivroreporter, based out of California has been measuring radiation levels and seeing "bukyballs" come ashore since Fukushima had its accid...

Enivroreporter, based out of California has been measuring radiation levels and seeing "bukyballs" come ashore since Fukushima had its accident. What the global community doesn't like is the secrecy about what has happened and seemingly vague responses to such question like, "Where has the radioactive water gone to?"

No one can ignore that the combined disasters of BP and Fukushima has had to contribute to the increase in Red Tide and dead fish and animals. Note, I said contributing.

As a community, we can handle the truth and shouldn't have to decided from one day to the next as to what level of truth we are prepared to hear. To over sensationalize it or to sweep it under the rug are not options.

So if governments want credibility, they have to earn our trust because for far too long they have treated their people with incredible disrespect and often view us as cattle that has to be controlled.

Greenpeace has been in the fight for a long time, perhaps, instead of fighting focus on education, solutions, and alternatives that engage communities.

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(Unregistered) Beppe
says:

Eventually someone is asking why nobody is in jail for the Fukushima nuclear disaster: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-06/japan-s-nuclear-mobsters-escape-tsunami-pain-commentary-by-william-pesek.html
Excellent article.